March 08, 2010

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As you've seen, Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill arrived in Israel today, the highest level Obama administration official to visit the Jewish state to date, with a mission to reassure Israel of the U.S.'s commitment to Israel's security (read: please don't bomb Iran, we've got you covered) and reaffirm the U.S.-Israeli special relationship (read: smooth over Israeli pique that Obama passed them over on previous trips to Cairo, Riyadh and Turkey and with his extensive outreach to the Muslim world).

So who does Biden bring with him to convey that cautious "reassure and reaffirm" message?

Matthew's security concerns aside (see Rothstein), one wonders a bit whether Biden and Matthews, prone to sometimes say a bit too much (Biden), a bit undiplomatically (Matthews), may not be the media combination just anyone would have chosen for operation reassure and reaffirm.

Laura, after all the media flak about widely perceived bias toward Israel on the part of Jewish New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner - and the Times's failure to disclose publicly the fact that his son is serving in the Israeli military or to reassign Bronner during his son's active dury - I interpret the White House choice of Matthews as a quiet public acknowledgement that neither a Jewish nor a Muslim journalist should be chosen to cover this extremely sensitive issue between Jews and Muslims. - Eileen White Read

The anti-semitic and anti-Muslim remarks of Eileen White Read (Peacemakers blog on True/Slant) above are disgraceful. She feels that because of the race of the one and the religion of the other, neither a single Jew nor a single Muslim is capable of honest reporting. It's a shame that a person who thinks so well of herself (peacemaker, indeed) permits herself such genteel racism and religious bigotry. It's not very well-bred of her.

Eileen White Read - you sound so sophisticated and aware. Too bad you are not.
The NYT and Bronner are decidedly anti-Israel in their coverage.
How about Bronner's racist accusations against Israel on a recent Hardball (nice team) - http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2010/03/08/ny-times-correspondent-israeli-prejudice-racism-help-explain-obama

EWR - here is an article from Bronner where the entire onus for moving the peace process forward is on Israel. Nothing said about any Palestinian obstacles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/world/middleeast/09biden.html